With more experience (and actually reading the manual and Jack6's Guide), the second incarnation of the Hackers brought big results very quickly. After only 4 seasons in existence, the Green Bay Hackers are headed to Elite after a bowl appearance in Season 38! Quick recap of our promotion season:

Regular season: 12-4 record, finishing behind the TigerCats in the division and clinching a Wild Card berth.
Wild Card round: @ Hainaut Gamecocks. The Hackers pulled the upset with a dominant 38-6 victory on the road.
Divisional round: @ BoneCrushers. The Hackers went on the road against a team that went 15-1 in the regular season. The Hackers were able to hold on to the upset in a drama-filled 24-20 victory.
Conference Championship: @ TigerCats. The Hackers met their division rivals in the Conference Championship game, and regular with the pattern of our games, the road team was able to win. So much for home-field advantage. The Elite-clinching game was won 33-14.
Bowl: @ Lyon Eagles. The Elite-ready Lyon Eagles proved to be too much for this young, rag-tag Hackers team, who fell to the best team in the league 32-14.
The Hackers will face intense competition in Elite this season; whether or not we are able to handle it remains to be determined.


Here's a quick preview of the team's week 1 starters this season:

Offense:
QB Derrick Powell, 29 years old: The team's franchise QB looks to lead his team to at least a couple of victories this season.
RB Lenny Cygan, 31 years old: An offseason acquisition will look to provide a strong running game this season.
FB Maciu Taase, 29 years old: A solid FB in a team that doesn't heavily feature the position.
WR Jan Vysloužil, 23 years old: The team's star #1 WR looks to produce with great volume to prove he's worthy of his recently signed franchise contract.
WR Vitor da Rocha, 25 years old: Often commanding the opposing team's #1 corner because of where he plays, this talented player still manages to produce big.
TE Tommaso Großglaußer, 21 years old: This guy has a bright future, once his skills improve and my playbook morphs to allow for a more prominent role for him.
LT Vítezslav Bílek, 31 years old: The rock on the blindside, he moves people at will.
LG Max Concepcion, 23 years old: This season will seriously test him. Low strength for an OL, but we'll have to make do with what we have.
C Jesper Ritter, 26 years old: Will move into the sole starter at the position after sharing snaps with Sanz last season, he will also be tested against elite talent.
RG Damion Wellman, 31 years old: Another stud, will be expected to perform big.
RT Sidney Gunther, 30 years old: Road-grader. Glad that he was convinced not to retire at the end of this season.

Defense:
LE HansPeter Weber, 26 years old: May become a right end, this will be a tough season for him, I suspect.
DT Joan Anderson, 26 years old: Finally up against worthy competition for a defender of his quality.
DT Len Kerr, 24 years old: Excited to see what he can do this season.
RE Malte Koch, 25 years old: A preseason acquisition, I hope he is available to start wreaking havoc week 1.
LOLB Emory Nunes, 31 years old: Stud. Glad to get him up to Elite for at least a season.
MLB Shaan Marin, 23 years old: Franchise MLB looks to continue to shred through offenses and shut things down.
ROLB Tito Manes, 25 years old: Moves into a full-time starting role this season, hoping he can compete at this level.
CB Leandro Rivera, 28 years old: He's got one season left on his deal, and after that he may be looking for work. Will be a solid starter this season.
CB Lou Taft, 30 years old: Glad he got up to Elite before retiring at the end of this season.
SS Jakab Grúz, 24 years old: Young stud, hoping his inexperience doesn't hurt him too much.
FS Sándor Meleÿ, 29 years old: He's been a solid starter since he was acquired, will look for more of the same.


Due to the realization that bad acquisitions were made in the past, and the fact that many of these players (among others) were asking for too much, some cuts had to be made. Major cuts:

DE Mariano Walls, 25 years old: 44 strength is way too low for any defensive lineman, and his demanding of $200,000+ per week was too much. The talent coming up behind him is good enough to justify cutting him.
RB Balfour Montgomery, 28 years old: Another low-physical guy (speed and strength both under 45), he was able to find success in the relatively weak Fire 1, but those physicals just won't cut it in Elite. We are grateful for all that he brought to the team in his time here.
WR Lasse Jensen, 24 years old: Speed and strength capped at 45 for each, leading him to a similar situation as Montgomery. Sad to see a player of his intelligence and teamwork go, but when physicals are so extremely important, those kinds of decisions have to be made. Again, we are grateful for all of his contributions in his three-season tenure with the team.
LB Alex Román, 27 years old: This low-physical player was brought in early in the team's existence to help out. Now, as the team has matured a bit, it was time to say goodbye. We thank you for your contributions to a young team.
OL Dean Casey, 26 years old: The same story for Casey, helped out a young team, but it was time to move on. Gracias a Dean.
We got rid of some initial-team players, and will soon get rid of a few more shortly. When that is done, we should have 3 initial-team players with the potential to contribute to the team in major fashion, which is exciting. We look forward to those times.


To prepare for Elite, the team made a couple of big name acquisitions. Those are:

RB Lenny Cygan, 31 years old: Has proved himself at the Elite level as both a running back and a wide receiver, he will be the team's feature back this season to give some more development time to two young running backs that will become the team's tandem in season 40.
DL Malte Koch, 25 years old: Will come in and fill Walls' spot at defensive end, and will wreak havoc on teams for many seasons to come.


The Youth Academy produced some exciting prospects this season:

WR Victor Veldkamp: This guy has been sharpening his skills in the YA since he was 17, and will become a solid starter for the team in the future.
RB Wallace Nesbitt: Another player that has spent many seasons in the YA, will likely become the team's starting fullback because of his high strength for a back.
OL George Herron: Acquired midway through the season, he will be a great player one day, with his 49.9 strength and good intangibles.
CB Brock Lin: Though a little behind on skill development, I still think he has a bright future with the team. He certainly has tons of upside, if nothing else.


I thought this season's draft class was weak in general, and having the 31st pick doesn't help in getting talent. Nonetheless, the team was able to pick up some intriguing players:

Round 1 - OL Azizbek Ayaganov, 19 years old: A very good prospect, I see a future offensive line featuring him, Herron, and last season's drafted lineman, Sanz, plowing through anyone who dares to stand in their way.
Round 2 - RB Pramoj Boonmee, 19 years old: He probably will not become a running back, but that remains to be seen as neither speed nor strength are even yellow capped. The highest of those two is also 41, so his future lies in where his physicals cap.
Round 3 - KR Kim Mcclintock, 23 years old: As I don't keep a designated kick returner on the team, that will not be his future on the team. He could have a future as a lineman, though, given his intangibles. If his strength is good, I could see him becoming a pretty formidable defensive end, given his speed capped at 46.6. His future also lies in physicals.

The Hackers start out Elite life with a tough home game against division rival PR Chaser. I expect him to put my team in its place, but if the recent acquisition of Koch processes quickly and he starts tomorrow, I could envision this game being interesting.

This will be a season of growing for the Hackers, and we will (most likely) come back to Fire 1 better than ever.

The third full season with the Hackers was a success, with a trip to the Wildcard round in Fire 1 and a first-ever Supercup playoffs appearance for the franchise. We even managed to beat an Elite team in round 1 before falling to PR Chasers, a fellow Fire team, in the second round.

The team's finances are looking good even at the start of the season. We are benefitting from fully pledging to the Mediacenter and getting the early pledge bonus; hopefully by the end of the season the team's balance will be up over $100,000,000. That would be a sign, in my opinion, that it's about time to make a push to Elite.

Like I said in the title, the Hackers plan to make some changes in our fourth season the second go-around. We made some slight changes to the Depth Chart to hopefully put players in their best possible positions. We got rid of some initial team players that at this point were just salary suckers. Our tight ends have an average age of 20.5; I'm super excited to try to incorporate them into the offense more this season. The team will be making some changes to the playbook, both offensive and defensive, to try to take advantage of the weapons we have on both sides of the ball. If finances look good, we may try to bring in some late-season Elite-level talent to try to prepare for a push next season. That remains to be determined.

The Hackers have been making full use of the Premium Youth Academy, and promoted five players from the YA to the Senior team. Those players are:
CB Jamie Smart - - future Elite starter imo
WR Raymond Loy - - might be a future starter in a very deep WR core
RB Bruno Chan - - skill development will be key to his success
TE Brian Valles - - the older half of my soon-to-be dynamic TE duo
P Phillip Labbe - - a roster spot is better than being cut, I guess?

I'm pleased with this draft class; only one draftee has hit the market, and the other two look like they're going to stick around for a while. This year's draft class is as follows:
Round 1: LB Jacobo Marín, 20 years old - - smart enough to play any position, fast enough to play SF, strong enough to play DL, I like this prospect a lot.
Round 2: OL Juan José Sanz, 20 years old - - with 50 strength, 37.7 intelligence, and 40.6 teamwork, this guy is the perfect build for an offensive lineman. Future road grader right here.
Round 3: WR Varuzhan Spácil, 22 years old - - poor speed for a wide-out, weak skills for a 22-year-old, this guy hit the market as soon as he was drafted. Will immediately get cut if no one bids on him.

Hopefully today's first league game on the road against skeetz's TigerCats will result in a W. Always a tough game, especially to start the season, but we've beat them before and I'm confident we can beat them again.

The Hackers are building momentum. Be prepared or suffer the consequences, 'cause here we come.

The Hackers had a very successful second season, making it to the Divisional round of the playoffs. We had some impressive victories along the way, and look to build momentum going into next season. I'm planning on making a few playbook changes and a few roster adjustments, and next year will see an even better Hackers team ready to make even more noise in Fire 1, and hopefully make some noise in the Supercup competition. I look to balance out my stats next season through a more balanced playbook.

We have a lot of nice young players that I can continue to build around as we look to build a perennial powerhouse.

Fans are rejoicing over their new, fully built stadium. The front office is also rejoicing, knowing that money will be coming with it shortly. They’re ready to get to work on building this team up to the contenders they once were.

The real work begins now, boys. Here we come.

After closing the team a couple months back, the former front office had heard enough complaints from the fans and decided to restart the team, just in time for Season 35 to start. The fans rejoice that their team is back in business. It will be a long road, as we are starting with our first full season being in division 1; hopefully that leads to some good draft picks that kickstart this team back to the playoffs. The fans are excited to see us start to build a team around our young sophomore QB.